Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy

Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology. Its origins go back to the 1920s when Gestalt psychology founder Max Wertheimer, Kurt Lewin and their colleagues and students started to apply the holistic and systems theoretical Gestalt psychology concepts in the field of psychopathology and clinical psychology Many developments in psychotherapy in the following decades drew from these early beginnings, like e.g. group psychoanalysis (S. Foulkes), so-called "Gestalt therapy" (Laura and Fritz Perls Goodman and others), or Katathym-imaginative Psychotherapy (Hanscarl Leuner). In Europe Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy in its own right has been initiated and formulated on this basis by the German Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen P. Walter and his colleagues in Germany and Austria. Walter, a student of Gestalt psychologist Friedrich Hoeth, was influenced to form the core of his theoretical concept on the basis of the work of Gestalt theorists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka, Kurt Lewin, and Wolfgang Metzger. Walter’s first publication of Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy came out in 1977 Gestalttheorie und Psychotherapie (Gestalt Theory and Psychotherapy), which is now on its third edition (1994). The majority of Walter’s books and journal articles on Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy are in the German language. However, his articles Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Gestalt-Theoretical Psychotherapy and What do Gestalt therapy and Gestalt theory have to do with each other? were published in English, as well as Gerhard Stemberger's introductory article Diagnostics in Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy.

Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy in this form has gained popularity predominately in German speaking countries. It is officially approved by the Austrian government as a scientific psychotherapy method under the Austrian Psychotherapy Act.

One of the most striking characteristics of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is the key role of the epistemological grounding position of Gestalt theory (critical realism) and its applicability to the fundamental, theoretical, and practical problems in psychotherapy. In Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy this is closely bound up with the basic methodological approach (holistic, phenomenological, experimental) of Gestalt theory, its system theoretical approach, and its specific psychophysical and psychological approach.

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